Gets booed at a historically black college. What was behind the anger and how the school is defending the choice to let her speak. An espn tragedy. The wife of chris berman killed in a deadly car accident along with another driver. This morning the tributes are pouring in. It is important to all of us on this show to make our love for chris and his family known. Investigators are trying to figure out what caused that crash today on may 11, 2017. This has today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from Studio Center 1 a. When we say mother of all storms, were referencing mothers day. Thats right. Al had kind of reaction. This isnt that huge of a right . I see what you did there. We dont want people to go running for cover. Dont stockpile stuff yesterday. This morning were hearing from President Trump and james comey as the fallout over the firing grows. President trump defending the timing of his decision to dismiss the former fbi director. Our team has it covered from all angles starting with Peter Alexander at the white house for us. Peter, good morning. Hi. With his presidency facing another political and pr crisis, a new poll shows President Trumps job Approval Rating sliding to near record negative levels. Just 36 of americans right now approve of the job hes doing. 58 you saw disapprove. All this comes as the fired fbi director james comey in a new letter to those at the agency he led until basically 36 hours ago say hes not going to dwell on his departure and they shouldnt either. This morning ousted fbi director james comey seen outside his home wednesday is break higz silence. Writing in a letter to former colleagues i have long believed that a president can fire an fbi director for little reason or no reason at all. Im not going to spend time on how it was executed. I will be fine and the mission deeply. President trump for the first Time Offering his own explanation on comeys ouster. While sitting down with Richard Nixons secretary of state, henry kissinger. Why did you fire james comey . He was not doing a good job. Mr. Trump fumed when comey dismissed the wiretapping claim. I have no information that supports those tweets. The times reporting comey was glaber gased after trump adding comey told associates he believed the president was outside the realm of normal. The white house was strongly inclined to remove comey after watching his capitol hill testimony last week. Meeting with Jeff Sessions on monday expressing his concerns that comey should be fired. A white house spokeswoman saying the president s deliberations date back movanths. Saying he also faced opposition within his own ranks. The rank and file of the fbi lost confidence in their director. Reporter but current and former agents dispute that. You have people who like it and dont like it, but overall, i think director comey has the support of rank and file. Reporter Even White House a senior white house saying they many aides learned comeys fate from cable news. Some of them not frustrated by what the president did but how he handled it. Reporter the senior white house official telling nbc news there was no internal meeting, no strategy session before comeys fire was announced and during the white houses normal meeting the next day, wednesday, led by reince priebus, the comey news was basically glanced over leading officials here to complain it should have been handled more elegantly. Many fearing this issue could swamp this presidency for weeks and perhaps for months. Peter, thank you. This morning both democrats and some republicans are voicing concerns about how james comeys firing may affect the russia investigation. The outrage palpable on capitol hill where the new acting fbi director will appear before a Congressional Committee a little later today. Kristen welker is there. Good morning reporter good morning. There could be more fireworks on capitol hill today. James comey was initially scheduled to testify before the Senate Intelligence committee but now Andrew Mccabe will appear in his place. The subject is worldwide threats but hell get questions about comey as the former National Security adviser to the president is back in the spotlight. This morning more folout for President Trump on capitol hill. A subpoena to the ousted National Security adviser Michael Flynn requesting documents related to the russia probe. Flynn has been under scrutiny for potential tied to russia. The republican chair of the Committee Also critical of President Trumps decision to fire james comey. The timing and the reasons for this decision made little sense to me. Reporter senator burr joining a concern. Jason chaffetz released a letter asking the Justice Departments Inspector General to look into the decision to fire director comey. This morning other gop law clerks also speaking out. A lot of us are puzzled as to the timing. Reporter but Republican Leaders standing next to the president. The president saw an fbi director where the people lost confidence and he acted. Is this a constitutional crisis . I see it as a crisis about the the ruefule of law. Reporter and some even threatening to block the president s pick for a new fbi director if it doesnt happen. Overnight a senator suggesting President Trump is playing with fire with the sacking of comey. It may well produce impeachment proceedings, although were very far from that possibility. Reporter in a case of could be bad timing, russias foreign minister was in washington to meet with the secretary of state and president. Facing tough questions from andrea mitchel. Does the comey firing cast a shadow over your talks . Reporter meanwhile in Russia Vladimir Putin after taking part in a celebrity hockey game was asked by cbs how comeys firing will affect u. S. russia relations. There will be no affect, he says. We have nothing to do with that. President trump is acting in accordance with his competence and in accordance with his law and constitution. As for flynns sources here on capitol hill say that subpoena of his documents was necessary, because he wasnt complying with requests by the Senate Intelligence committee unless he was offered immunity. They asked him to testify in a closed door session. No word on the if hell kristen welker, thank you. Whats happening inside the fbi and whats next for that agency and this russia investigation. Pete williams has more on that. Good morning. Reporter theres a strong belief that james comey was fired as director because he wouldnt shut down the investigation into whether the Trump Campaign had anything to do with russias hacking attacks on the president ial election. President trump has frequently derided the investigation saying in a tweet on monday, quote, when will this taxpayer funded charade end. Congressional sources say far from ending it, comey told them that he asked the Justice Department to provide more resources for the investigation in a meeting last week with the Deputy Attorney general who wrote the memo supporting the firing. A justice official says that meeting never happened and no request was some Officials Say rosenstain threatened to resign if it wasnt made clear that he was asked to write the memo. For now james comey isnt saying anything further, but it wouldnt be surprising if he soon provides his own version of what led to the firing. All right. Pete williams, thank you. Sara Huckabee Sanders is Deputy White House secretary and joins us now. Good morning. Lets clear one thing up here and now. Is it still the position of the white house and the president that james comeys firing had absolutely nothing to do with russia and his investigation into possible collusion . Absolutely. Look, its real simple. Any investigation that was taking place on monday is still taking place today. That doesnt change because director comey isnt there. So this absolutely has nothing to do with any investigation into russia. Do you understand why some people are frankly suspicious . I mean, the president tweeted on t funded charade and a hoax c and he fires the fbi director the same way. It also is reported that it happened just as Congress Says comey was asking for more resources for the russia investigation. Subpoenas were being issued. Do you understand why people are thinking theres smoke here, there must be fire . Again, anything that was taking place hasnt changed. Look, i think that director comey had become a greater liability. If anything, i think the American People should have more confidence that they dont have somebody caught in that cross fire as part of this conversation. You have an independent individual lick the Deputy Attorney general who had been appointed obama and President Trump. This is someone who sets the Gold Standard in the legal system. I think hes a perfect person youd be looking for in terms of an independent person to be the helm of the investigation. The Washington Post has a story that says that the quit. Hes one of the questions who wrote the threepage memo outlining the shortcomings of james comey. He threatened to quit because he thought too much of the credit or blame for the firing of james comey was being laid at his feet. Did that happen . Did he threaten to quit . Im not aware of that conversation. But i know the decision to fire director comey was the president s and the president s alone. Obviously he took their recommendation very seriously. But the president had been thinking about this since november, since he was elected president. This was something he had considered. He had never been solidly on board with keeping comey for the long term, and the erosion of confidence had been taking place over a long period of time. Last wednesdays testimony was another example and catalyst that pushed the president to the point he asked for their feedback. They give that to him orally. And he asked them recommendation which was a very strong recommendation and very clear reasons why they also felt that the director should no longer be in that position. When the president wrote that short termination letter to director comey, i want to ask you about one paragraph where he said he appreciated comey telling him on three occasions that he wasnt under investigation. The wall street journal reporting associates of comey say that never happened. They call it literally farcical, and said it would violate longstanding policies on criminal investigations. Why did the president feel that it was necessary to include that paragraph in that letter . Look, im not sure on the reasoning behind that exact part in there, but i do know i spoke to the president directly, and he said that the moments and conversations did take place. Do you have any proof of those conversations . I mean, again, i spoke directly to the president. I think thats a pretty good source to go no, does the president have any proof of those conversations . Thats a question well have to ask him. Real quickly, sara, answer a question for me. If the president really believes that his campaign has nothing to hide, he certainly believes in his own innocence, why not just come right out and say let that investigation go forward . Three resources at it. Nobody wants to get to the bottom of this more than i do. Instead, he continues to call it a hoax and a charade. Why not just clear the air . I think we have. Weve cooperated in every place we could. Youve got the House Committee looking into it where they say they found nothing. A Senate Committee started looking into it and said theyve found nothing. The fbi is looking into it. They said they found nothing. Weve cooperated but its been going on for nearly a year and throughout this entire time everybody has come back with there is no evidence of collusion. At some point we have to get to a place wheree and looked through it, and nothing is there, and its time to move on. Do you think look, we want this thing to go to full completion. We are completely supportive of that. I dont think theres anybody that wants that more than this administration. Lets complete this so he can focus on the things that i think most americans really care about. Sara Huckabee Sanders, good to have your time. Thank you. Great to be here. In our next half hour well talk to one of the people who reportedly told President Trump to fire james comey. And well hear from President Trump himself tonight when lester holt sits down with the president. This is his first interview since the firing. You can watch that exclusive interview tonight on nightly news and more of the interview tomorrow on today. A Florida College is defending the decision to invite controversial education secretary betsy devos as vensmeven commencement speaker. I am honored to become a wildcat. Some of the graduates at the university turned their backs on betsy devos when she began to speak. She upset critics in february when she called historically black colleges. She later admitted they were created because African Americans other colleges werent open to African Americans. A radiation scare at the Largest Nuclear waste facility. Rick perry has ordered an investigation of a storage tunnel collapse at the Hanford Nuclear plant. Perry acknowledged that the federal government has failed over the years to deal and said we can no longer kick the can down the road. Anything better than a game seven in the playoffs . In the stanley cup, game seven matchups and now there are just four teams remaining. The defending champions, penns shut out the capitals. Another disappointing finish for capitals fans. The penguins advance to the finals against ottowa. And the Anaheim Ducks ended their streak of game 7 losses with a 21 victory. Anaheim will host the predators friday night. You can join a lot of stanley cup playoff action on nbc sn. Love the cup. You mother of all storms. A big noreaster coming. Just on time for mothers day in the northeast. Other folks will see nice weather. But right now were looking at a lot of folks along the eastern seaboard that will be affected by this. Low pressure causing big showers. Its going to cause heavy thunderstorms through the plains states and into the midwest. Later on friday, it sets up along the northeast mid Atlantic Coast and moves offshore. Rain and wind for the mid Atlantic States. Saturday and sunday in the northeast and new england is a slow mover. Not only is there heavy rain but strong winds. Look at the winds being setting up as the low pressure intensifies. Wind gusts of anywhere from 30 Miles Per Hour to 40 Miles Per Hour on saturday. Sunday it moves into new england. And the rainfall amounts anywhere from 1 to 3 inches widespread from washington up to portland. Weekend see four to five inches locally which may cause some urban flooding. Well get to your local forecast coming up in the next 30 good morning. Line of moderate rain with thunder and lightning moving through winchester headed to parts of Loudoun County and western parts of fair fax. This is coming toward the city. Youll need the umbrella today. Temperatures are in the 50s now with the rain coming in. Well stay in the 50s all day long today. Off and on showers in the 50s again tomorrow and heavy rain staying in the 50s. Next time we see the sun is sunday. All right. Coming up french fries delivered by a drone may not be all that farfetched. Well tell you what all the buzz is about at the Worlds Largest drone convention. And condolences are pouring in this morning for chris berman after his wife is killed in a car accident and this morning investigators are searching for the cause of the crash. First, this is today on nbc. Theres the view. Theres more to life than the climb. Youve gotta stop and look around a little. Come, shed lifes layers in asheville. Let the child inside you out to play. Remember who you are. Life is for the taking, not for taking it easy. Asheville. Discovery, inside and out. Coming up, a young boys brush with fame as he tries to get into politics with be Vice President. First your local news. And my impractical wardrobe changes, those all set . Not even close. Oh, this is probably going to shine in your eyes at the worst possible time. Perfect. Were looking at a real train wreck here, am i right . Wouldnt it be great if everyone said what they meant . The citi® double cash card does. It lets you earn double cash back with 1 when you buy, and 1 as you pay. Double means double. 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